John Charruaud, Dancing Master

that they had opened a store on the post road, six miles above Poughkeepsie and one mile from DeCantillon8 and Stoutenburgh's landing, where they had for sale dry goods and West India goods, and they stated also that they had erected a fulling mill on the post road, one-half mile above their store. But the advertisement offers no ground for a supposition that the new store and the new fulling mill were at a locality that boasted a particular name. They were "on the post road", at given distances from the local landing and from Poughkeepsie.

On January 19, 1791, a map was filed in the office of the Clerk of Dutchess County which records the partition of the farm of Luke Stoutenburgh. There was in 1791 no village where a village now stands and the map gives no community-name for the few buildings scattered on the property. At the river was a landing. From the river a road came up hill to the post road; it was equivalent to the present West Market street hut it formed a T-shaped junction with the post road and did not extend eastward where East Market street now runs. The fulling mill, advertised in 1789, shows on the map of 1791 as on Crum Elbow Creek just west of the post road. Near the creek east of the post road was a "clothier's shop." East of the road and opposite the road to the landing was a church and there was a schoolhouse both north and south of the church. Tradition says one school was for white children and the other for black.

Six years later—in 1797—a map8 was made of the town of Clinton which shows the above neighborhood with almost exactly the same buildings as in 1791 and still with no community-name to designate it. The newspapers printed at Poughkeepsie in the 1790's contain a number of references to this locality but always without a specific name. In 1800 a farm for sale in the town of Clinton was described" as five miles "from DeCantillon's landing"; and in 1802 another farm was said"- to be "six miles north of Poughkeepsie on the post road, between the seats of John Johnson, Esq.,'2 and Dr. Samuel Bard."" There is no hint of a hamlet with a name.

In 1804 there appeared however in the Poughkeepsie Journal of July 17th an advertisement of pertinent interest Walter Skidmore announced that he would like to sell a house and one-half acre of ground in the town of Clinton, six and one-half miles above Poughkeepsie on the post road; the house stood at the four corners which were formed by the intersection with the post road of "the new shunpike", leading from the

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Nine Partners to DeCantillon's8 landing. Mr. Skidmore said that the house was new and well finished, was convenient for a store and tavei n and had been occupied as such ever since built and that it was within a few rods of the church.

In this advertisement there is provided a record of a tavern which was new in 1804 and also a record of the approximate time at which a road was opened eastward in such a way as to form the four corners which now are the focal point of the village of Hyde Park. But still no community-name was used. The tavern was merely so far from Poughkeepsie and so far from the landing.

Unfortunately, Walter Skidmore's deeds of purchase and sale of the land and the tavern are not recorded. The Rev. Dr. A. T. Ashton, in an article on the town of Hyde Park published in 1909, stated14 that a tavern was conducted at the four corners by Joseph Carpenter; that Carpenter was succeeded by an Englishman, named Miller; that Miller placed a signboard before the tavern, inscribed: Hyde Park Hotel; and that he also was instrumental in having the local post office named: Hyde Park. Government records at Washington record the establishment of the post office at Hyde Park as having taken place in 1812, which would leave a spread of eight years between Walter Skidmore, owner of the tavern in 1804, and Miller, the supposed host in 1812.

The tradition cited by Dr. Ashton in regard to the signboard that was put up at the tavern at the four corners is one that is often quoted and generally credited. The four corners are a little south of Crum Elbow Creek. North of the creek is a private estate, which in 1804-1812 was the home of Dr. Samuel Bard and which had long borne the name: Hyde Park.'5 The four corners were nameless. They were adjacent to the handsome residential property. If Miller were an Englishman, vs Dr. Ashton's tradition averred, it was in accordance with a custom with which he was familiar that a small community near an estate should be identified with the private place. Thus, despite Dr. Bard's displeasure, the convenient identification for the hamlet was adopted in common speech and by 1812 the post office was set up as: Hyde Park.

It should be noted that the Gazetteer of the State of New York, that was published in 1813 by H. G. Spafford, says that Hyde Park was then a pleasant village, consisting of forty houses, and that it was "named from the elegant seat of Dr. Bard in its vicinity."

From the foregoing it is plain that the growth of the village of Hyde

27

Park began after the map of 1797 was made and before 1813, when (according to Spafford) there were forty houses in the neighborhood.

The map of the farm of Luke Stoutenburgh that was filed in 1791 (as above cited) records a church building as standing then on the east side of the post road near the present four corners and it is in connection with the name of that church that there has arisen some of the misunderstanding referred to at the opening of this article. The church-building belonged to the "Stoutsburgh Religious Society." The members of that society gathered themselves together at an unrecorded date. On January 7, 1789, the clerk of the society opened a minute book and entered in it the names of fifty persons who on that date had started a fund for building a church. The subscribers to the fund were men who represented several Protestant denominations and their homes were scattered over the whole area that now constitutes the town of Hyde Park,—that is to say: they lived at or near the site of the present Staatsburgh ; along the course of Crum Elbow Creek in the interior; and throughout the south end of the present township, from the river eastward.

Naturally, any group of people living at such widely separated points needed to select a site for a church that would be convenient to as many as possible. It was therefore decided that a lot on which to build a church should be purchased "on the plains of Luke Stoutenburgh." This was in 1789, just as the farm of Luke Stoutenburgh had been partitioned among his children and when some of his heirs had begun to sell some pieces out of their holdings. But it should be remembered that the "Stoutsburgh Religious Society" was already organized before it acted to buy land; that it had acquired its name before it selected a site for a church; and that the site selected was at a place that had no name other than "the plains of Luke Stoutenburgh,"—which was just a descriptive term for a topographical feature.

While the subscribers to the fund for building a church lived in all parts of a large territory, the initial movement for founding an undenominational religious society must have arisen among residents of a place called "Stoutsburgh", inasmuch as that name was given to the society, and fortunately the story of "Stoutsburgh" can be accurately set down.

In the north end of the present township of Hyde Park a tract of land was purchased from the Indians by Henry Pawling of Ulster County, who died in 1695. Henry Pavvling's heirs sold most of their

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rights in the land to Dr. Samuel Staats of New York City, who died in 1715. The land was held in common by the heirs of Dr. Staats and by some of the heirs of Henry Pawling until 1751, when it was partitioned and laid out in lots. Before 1751 it had however become known as "Staatsburgh" because the Staats family held the majority interest in it, —as for example in 1748 the county record of roads" mentions a road "to Staatsburgh Landing." In 1760-1763 "the schoolmaster at Staatsburgh" was entered on the tax lists of the county; the map of the post road, made in 1778-1780,2 has "Staatsburgh" printed across the road at a given point; and the deeds and mortgages filed in the office of the county clerk use the name to indicate land in the vicinity now occupied by a village called: Staatsburgh.

Staats is a Dutch name, pronounced by the Dutch so that the aa resembles the sound of aw in English. Thus Staats should be pronounced "Stawts." The English-speaking people who lived on the land mis-pronounced and also mis-spelled the name. To this day the mispronunciations: Stoutsburgh and Statsburgh can be heard, while the documents of the eighteenth century are sprinkled with such mis-spellings as: Staetsburgh, Stortsburgh and Stattsburgh. There can be however no question but that the "Stoutsburgh Religious Society" originated with men who lived in the neighborhood properly called: Staatsburgh.

One other item has sometimes been mis-leading in regard to "Stoutsburgh." In 1859 the Rev. Dr. C. E. Corwin printed a Manual of the Reformed Church in America. In listing a Dutch Reformed Church at the present village of Hyde Park, Dr. Corwin described (at page 710) the church as originally at "Stoutenburgh or Stoutsburgh", a place "now Hyde Park." At page 709 he said that Staatsburgh was "probably an error for Stoutsburgh or vice versa," thus revealing that in 1859 he, a non-resident stranger, was uncertain as editor in regard to local placenames. Dr. Corwin was more than half a century removed in time from the founding of the "Stoutsburgh Religious Society ;" he knew nothing of the truth about Staats-Stouts-Stats ; and, with something in his mind about the Stoutenburgh family in connection with land at Hyde Park, he became confused by the similarity of Stoutsburgh and Stoutenburgh.

With the presentation of this outline of the evidence provided by contemporary documentary records, it is hoped that hereafter the story of Hyde Park and Staatsburgh as place-names may be better understood.

The writer makes grateful acknowledgement of several factual items

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contributed to this paper by President Roosevelt and by Mr. Henry T. Hackett, both of Hyde Park and both officers of the Dutchess County Historical Society.

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS.

REFERENCES

1.—Records of the Clerk of Dutchess County, deeds, liber 95, page 27. On March 14, 1768, Jacobus Stoutenburgh of Charlotte Precinct, Dutchess County, conveyed to his son, Luke Stoutenburgh, also of Charlotte Precinct, two pieces of land. The first piece was a tract of 160 acres in Charlotte Precinct, lying in the ninth water-lot of the Great Nine Partners Patent. The second was a tract of 140 acres in Charlotte Precinct, immediately north of the first. Out of the second Jacobus Stoutenburgh set aside one acre for use as a family burial ground.

The second piece of land, above, was triangular in shape. The base of the triangle was a line which ran from Hudson's river eastward, which line was also the northern boundary of the ninth water-lot. The apex of the triangle, pointing north, was at the bend in Crum Elbow Creek that occurs between the river and the Post Road.

The deed states that the second piece of land was called "the nuke." There is no word: nuke, either in Dutch or in English. Possibly the copyist, who in 1857 recorded the deed in the Clerk's office, misread the document of 1768; tit: word in the deed may have been hoeck, which is Dutch for point or corner. The Dutch word: hoeck was used often in the Hudson valley and it describes accurately the triangular piece of land under consideration. 2.—Map of the New York-Albany Post Road, made by Robert Erskine. 1778-1780. Reproduced in the Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society for 1925, opposite page 22. 3.—Map of the New York-Albany Post Road, made by Christopher Colles. Published 1789. Reproduced in Hasbrouck's History of Dutchess County, page 674. 4.—Records of the Clerk of Dutchess County, Road Book C, page 160. See also: James H. Smith; History of Dutchess County, page 300. 5.—Survey and map made in 1738 by Henry Livingston of Poughkeepsie; recorded in the office of the Clerk of Dutchess County; reproduced at pages 79-82 of Poughkeepsie, The Origin and Meaning of the Word, Reynolds, 1924. 6.—The road north of the Hudson River State Hospital, that runs east from the Post Road and is known today as Dorsey's Lane, ran in 1766 from the Post Road west to the river (see: deeds, liber 5, pages 58 and 355). It approximated at the river the line between water-lots one and two. The course of a former road between two rows of trees is traceable west of the Post Road at the top of Teller hill near the boundary of Water-lots four and five and similar evidence is to be found at the junction of water-lots five and six between the lands of the late James Roosevelt Roosevelt and those of Mrs. James Roosevelt. 7.—Records of the Clerk of Dutchess County. 8.—An early landing at Hyde Park was conducted by Richard DeCantillon, a son-in-law of Tobias Stoutenburgh (who was a son of the original Jacobus Stoutenburgh). Richard DeCantillon died February 18, 1806, in his sixty-first year. 9.—Map of the town of Clinton, Dutchess County, filed at Albany and reproduced in the Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society for 1926, opposite page 40. 10.—Poughkeepsie Journal, January 14, 1800, p. 1, c. 4.

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11.—Ibid., January 5, 1802, p. 1, c. 2. 12.—The "seat" of John Johnstone was the property, called Belle field, recently owned by the Hon. Thomas Newbold and now the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gerald Morgan. 13.—The "seat" of Dr. Samuel Bard was the property, called Hyde Park, now owned and occupied by Frederick W. Vanderbilt. 14.—Hasbrouck; History of Dutchess County, pp. 354-, 355. 15.—By tradition, the property immediately north of Crum Elbow Creek was named Hyde Park when the land was patented in 1705. Documentary evidence (as per the Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society for 1932, at page 80) shows that it was certainly so called as early as 1768. 16.—Records of the Clerk of Dutchess County, Road Book B, p. 20.

f

I

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JOHN CHARRUAUD

DANCING MASTER

In the years before the War of the Revolution the people of Dutchess County were occupied with the heavy task of clearing land, laying out farms and developing homesteads and the practical necessities of life bore down upon them to an extent that excluded non-essentials. In the midst of the daily round of a pioneer in a new country there could not be much leisure and, without leisure, there was small opportunity to gratify any inclination the people may have had for the refinements of life.

After the War of the Revolution, as the farms prospered, a marked change took place and contemporary records reveal the residents of Dutchess as enjoying some of the graces and accomplishments of a more privileged social life. One such evolution took place in dancing. Before the war there were spontaneous rustic merrymakings. After the war there were dancing masters, who instructed classes in the more elegant steps of an Assembly Room. One of the first of such teachers was John Charruaud and it seems fitting to set down here an account of him and to consider the story of his service to this local community as an illustration of the transition that took place in the county from the simplicity of a rural neighborhood to the greater sophistication of a later date.

John Charruaud (whose name declares him of French descent) came from the West Indies to New York City prior to 1807, in February of which year he announced himself in the Mercantile Jdvertiser as a teacher of fencing. But in 1812 he advertised in the Evening Post as a teacher of dancing and, from that time on, no more is heard of fencing. His career in New York City as a dancing master continued from 1812 for over fifty years, his name appearing in the city directory as a teacher of dancing for the last time in 1865-1866, and for most of that half century he frequently came to Poughkeepsie in the late spring and early summer at the close of his winter season in New York. At Poughkeepsie it was his custom to establish himself as a guest at a hotel and, in the so-called Long Room or Assembly Room of the house, conduct classes and balls. His pupils probably came from a radius in the county around the village of Poughkeepsie for his advertisements invite patronage from "the vicinity" and mention particularly his clientele at Hyde'Park.

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M. Charruaud's visits to Poughkeepsie may have begun before 1814 for the first of his advertisements that has been found, dated May 18, 1814 (Republican Herald, May 18, 1814, p. 3, c. 3), seems to imply that he was already known there and says that he intended opening his Dancing School for the summer season on the 27th of May at the Dutchess Hotel.

In 1815 M. Charruaud stated in the Republican Herald that he was unable that year to attend his school at Poughkeepsie but would recommend Mr. Biart, professor of dancing at the City Hotel in New York, who would open on May 23rd at the Poughkeepsie Hotel. He said that Mr. Biart had been engaged at Hyde Park, where he was recommended to "several of the most respectable families."

The Dutchess Hotel, where M. Charruaud held his classes at Poughkeepsie in 1814, is in part still standing on Cannon street east of (the present) Wood Lane. The east end wall of the hotel and half of its north wall form structural portions of number 27 Cannon street. They are three and one-half stories high, with dormer windows on the roof, and exhibit the eaves-line, chimneys and windows typical of 1814. After 1814 M. Charruaud apparently went for many years to the Poughkeepsie Hotel, which stood on the north side of Main street, at the head of Market, where New Market street has lately been opened. In 1850, 1851 and 1852 he advertised from the Franklin House, which was on the northeast corner of Main and Washington, but which disappeared long ago. The Poughkeepsie Hotel, torn down more recently, was an ell in shape and the writer can recall in the 1890's a large oblong room in the northeast wing, used then as a place for travelling salesmen to exhibit sample merchandise, which may easily have been the Long Room of the house in which M. Charruaud held his classes and assemblies.

The tie between M. Charruaud and Dutchess was slightly personal as well as professional for on February 5, 1814, he was married at Poughkeepsie by the Reverend John Reed, rector of Christ Church, to Miss Eliza Ballentine of New York. The date of the marriage appears on the register of the church but it was not until the following August that a formal notice was printed in the Poughkeepsie Journal. Unfortunately this marriage terminated in a separation in 1827, when the custody of the children was awarded to their father. Madame Charruaud removed to Elizabethtown, N. J., and subsequently M. Charruaud

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married Lucia Matilda Maillard, daughter of Lucien Maillard of New York City.

Of M. Charruaud's children nothing has been learned except that his son, John H. Charuaud, was in business in New York in the 1840's as an importer, that he removed to Paris to live, and that he was lost at sea in January, 1856, with the steamship Pacific, on a voyage that was begun at Liverpool for New York.

M. Charruaud's name is listed in the directories of New York City until 1870. No record has been found in New York either of his death or of the settlement of his estate and it is possible that, as a very old man, he left the city and ended his days in the suburbs. He may have returned to the home of his youth in the West Indies.

Three published references to M. Charruaud are at hand which were made by writers who either knew him personally or knew of his reputation. At page 128 of Biographies of Francis Lewis and Morgan Lewis Mrs. Julia Livingston Delafield of New York and Dutchess spoke in 1877 of Charruaud as long a dancing master in New York, who gave lessons to several generations of pupils. General James Grant Wilson in The Memorial History of the City of New York (Volume 3, page 361), published 1892-1893, said that dancing was taught in New York by "M. Charruaud, whose method was thorough in the training of the body as well as in grace of motion. Tradition of his amiability and skill remain with three generations of New Yorkers, whom the veteran taught up to the age of four score." The third reference is, however, one in more detail and one for which we are indebted to Henry James. In A Small Boy and Others (pages 231, 237), a volume of autobiographical reminiscences, Mr. James (born in 1843) presented a vivid picture of M. Charruaud's personal appearance. Writing of his attendance in extreme youth at Ferrero's dancing academy in New York Mr. James told how Charruaud, as an old man, visited the classes at the academy. In his own individual style he described the impression made upon his boyish mind by the scene, which he said came back to him "in the ancient person of M. Chariau—I guess at the writing of his name—whom I work in but confusedly as a professional visitor, a subject gaped at across a gulf of fear, in one of our huddled schools; all the more that I perfectly evoke him as resembling, with a difference or two, the portraits of the aged Voltaire, and that he had, fiddle in hand and jarret tendu, incited the young agility of our mother and aunt."

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All the portraits of Voltaire show a face, broad between the temples, that narrowed to a pointed chin; with keen eyes under beetling brows and with a large expressive nose. The words: jarret tendu do not lend themselves to a too literal translation but they perfectly convey the idea of the poised figure of the old master, his fiddle resting on his shoulder and one leg extended in a manner characteristic of dancer or courtier. And so, in a few words, Henry James gave us M. Charruaud, both in face and in figure.

Another mental picture of M. Charruaud may be formed from an advertisement in theNew York Evening Post of April 10, 1817, which announced that on April 14th, in the Assembly Room of the City Hotel, Messrs. Charruaud and Bossieux would give a Grand Ball. There was to be a stage with scenery, fancy dances and a ballet and, finally, M. Charruaud was to dance "an elegant pas seul." With the mind's eye it is easy to see James Grant Wilson's expert in the grace of motion, with his well trained body, he who in face made Henry James think of Voltaire, executing a solo dance on that stage of 1817.

In the course of his several advertisements in the Poughkeepsie papers M. Charruaud usually offered instruction in waltzing and in the cotillon. Once he spoke of new waltzes, the Bolerino and the Gerlitza. Apparently each season was enlivened by one or more "Soiree Balls", when he assembled such of his pupils as were of an age for evening parties and showed how they should conduct themselves at such gatherings. His notices in the newspapers convey so much of the atmosphere of the time and place that a few are included here that the reader may imbibe their flavor.

From the Poughkeepsie Journal and Constitutional Republican, June 1, 1814, p. 2, c. 2. "MR. JOHN CHARRUAUD Respectfully informs the Ladies and Gentlemen of Poughkeepsie and its vicinity that he intends to open his Dancing School for the

Summer season and will begin on the 27th inst. at the Dutchess

Hotel and hopes by his assiduity to merit the patronage of the Parents that will favor him with their children. The days of attendance are every Tuesday and Saturday of each week and a Public

Ball every fortnight. The hours of attendance are from 4 till 6 in

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the afternoon for Young Ladies and from 6 till 8 in the evening for Gentlemen."

From the Poughkeepsie Telegraph, May 3, 1843, P. 3, c. 2. "A CARD Mr. Charruaud begs leave respectfully to acquaint his friends, the Ladies and Gentlemen of Poughkeepsie and vicinity and also of

Hyde Park, that he contemplates passing the Summer Season in their part of the country and would be pleased to give instructions in DANCING and WALTZING during the Season. Mr. C. will be at the Poughkeepsie Hotel on Monday the 8th of May to receive the Subscriptions of those who are desirous to participate in the above rational, polite and graceful accomplishments.

April 25th, 1843."

From the Journal and Poughkeepsie Eagle, May 11, 1850, p. 3, c. 4. "DANCING AND WALTZING CLASS At the Franklin House, New Buildings, 227 Main street, (corner of Washington) Messrs. Smith & Hill. Private Entrance in Main street. Mr. Charruaud and Mrs. Lanny have the honor to acquaint their patrons, the ladies and gentlemen of Po'keepsie and Hyde Park, that their Dancing and Waltzing Class will commence on Monday,

April 29th, at the above place. Days of instruction in Cotillion, all the new Waltzes (and the

German Cotillion if required) Monday and Wednesday at 4 o'clock

P. M. for Ladies, Misses and Masters. Mr. C. intends only to teach ten weeks during the months of

May and June; therefore respectfully suggests that those who are desirous of learning all the Dances should commence at the commencement of the term. Gentlemen and Ladies wishing to learn the new dances only can receive private lessons at any hour through the day by applying at the above place to Mr. Charruaud or to Mrs. Lanny."

No advertisement by M. Charruaud has been found at Poughkeepsie later than one dated April 30, 1852, and as he was then elderly he had

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probably begun to find a trip to the country in the spring too great a tax upon his strength,—indeed in 1850 and 1851 he brought an assistant with him (Mrs. Lanny). He was not the first dancing master at Poughkeepsie; an advertisement of a dancing class occurs in 1797. Nor was he the last prominent teacher from New York; the writer well remembers Marwig of the 1880's,—with his waxed moustache, his wellfitting broadcloth suit, his embonpoint, his shining, pointed, patent leather shoes and light, sliding steps. But Charruaud continued coming to the little country town for so long a span of years, was so well known and was so picturesque a figure that he is presented in these pages as an example of a class and of a period and as evidence of the value which, in his day, was placed upon good manners, fine carriage and graceful address. All of which things are now out of fashion. HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS.

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DUTCHESS COUNTY MEN OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

DR. PETER TAPPEN

Among the many men in Dutchess County whose names stand out for the usefulness of their service during the period from 1775 to 1783 mention should be made of Dr. Peter Tappen. He was a native of Kingston, N. Y., where he was baptized June 24, 1748, a son of Petrus Tappen and Taatjen Wyncoop.

The Tappen family was prominent in Kingston and was descended from Jurian Teunise Tappen, who came to Fort Orange as early as 1662 and whose wife was a daughter of Wybrecht Jacobse. It was their son, Teunis Tappen, who first came to Kingston and married Sara Schepmoes in 1695, and who was the founder of the family in this vicinity. Christoffel, the son of Teunis, married in 1715 Cornelia Vas, daughter of Domine Vas, who came from Amsterdam in 1712 and served the Dutch Church in Kingston for over forty years and died in 1752, aged 96 years. Petrus, the son of Christoffel, married in 1736 Taatjen Wyncoop and they were the parents of the subject of this sketch.

Dr. Peter Tappen received a good education for those times and probably studied medicine in the office of some physician in Kingston, as was the custom of that day, there being no medical colleges. Whether he began the practice of his profession in his home town I find no proof, but, on November 3, 1771, he wrote to his sweetheart, Elizabeth Crannell: "Poughkeepsie, N. Y., My dear, I came here last night and to my surprise found you was gone to New York." He then puts up an earnest plea for an early marriage, saying "I put so much store by this scheme that I have sent for our license." His plea surely was successful for the records show that they were married very shortly afterwards. The marriage license was dated November 6. 1771.1 If he had not already made Poughkeepsie his home, he did very soon after.

His wife's father, Bartholomew Crannell, was Poughkeepsie's leading lawyer and one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens. Mr. Crannell at once presented the young couple with a home on Main Street where Crannell Street now intersects, as he had done for another daughter, Catherine, and her husband, Gilbert Livingston, who was his law partner. The population at this time was beginning to divide in its

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sympathies, those supporting the existing regime of loyalty to England were designated as Tories and those in opposition as Whigs. Bartholomew Crannell, who was bound by his oath as a representative of the Crown Of England, was quite naturally an ardent loyalist, while his two sons-in-law, Dr. Tappen and Gilbert Livingston, were just as ardent in their Whig sentiments. By 1775 the controversy had become so bitter that armed resistance had been resorted to and the battle of Lexington had been fought in April. The first Independent Militia Company was raised in Poughkeepsie, with John Schenck as Captain and Dr. Peter Tappen as First Lieutenant. This company was later absorbed by the regular militia organization.

Dr. Tappen served during 1775 as a member of the Committee of Correspondence. Dr. Tappen's name does not appear in either of the volumes New York in the Revolution, published by the State Comptroller's office, but on June 22, 1776, Colonel James Clinton applied to General Washington for the appointment of Dr. Tappen as surgeon to his regiment, the Second New York Continental Line.2 Evidently Colonel Clinton had previously requested this appointment by Congress, as General Washington in his reply advised him to renew his request. Later, in August, 1776, when Colonel Clinton was promoted to Brigadier General he submitted a list of the officers of his regiment and named Dr. Peter Tappen as surgeon, wtih the qualifying notation, "good".3

From Fort Constitution Dr. Tappen sent newsy letters to his wife. On October 26, 1776, he wrote: "I propose to come up some time next week to bring you down. If you conclude to come you will keep yourself ready." He wrote Governor Clinton about affairs at Forts Constitution and Montgomery and the Governor's farm at New Windsor and the health of Mrs. Clinton who was sojourning there.

Just how long Dr. Tappen remained with the regiment the records I have been able to consult, do not show, but about a year later, August 9, 1777, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety, whose function was to detect and prevent conspiracies and plots among the Tories and disaffected, and from the records of this committee it was a very busy one. In October, 1777, when the British fleet came up the Hudson Dr. Tappen was on hand to take Mrs. Clinton, wife of the Governor, and his own wife, who were both in Poughkeepsie, to a place of safety at the home of Mrs. Barnes at Pleasant Valley, about eight

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miles from the river, where they remained for some time until all danger had passed.

Mrs. Clinton was a sister of Dr. Tappen. Judge Marius Schoonmaker in his History of Kingston, says that Christopher Tappen, brother of Dr. Tappen, married a sister of Governor George Clinton,4 but the marriage records show that a license was issued to George Clinton and Cornelia Tappen,5 a sister of Christopher and Peter Tappen, on October 28, 1769, and that Christopher Tappen and Annaatje Wynkoop were issued a license April 16, 1761,6 and were married May 9, 1761.

Dr. Tappen acted in January, 1781, on a Board of Assessors to levy a tax on the estates of persons found guilty of assisting the enemy in any manner. During 1780 and 1781 he served as Justice of the Peace in Poughkeepsie. After the Revolution Dr. Tappen settled down with his family in Poughkeepsie and engaged in a general mercantile and shipping business with stores at what was known as the Middle Landing, now the foot of Union Street. His partner was Captain Israel Smith, (late of the Fourth and Second New York Regiments), under the firm name of Tappen and Smith. The store was long known as the Union Store and the street leading to it from Market Street was Union Store Road, now known as Union Street.

Dr. Tappen was early active in the affairs of the Reformed Dutch Church and at its reorganization in 1789 was elected one of its elders. He was active in the affairs of the village and county. He was Road Commissioner for the town in 1788. One of the last recorded acts is that in 1791, with his brother-in-law, Gilbert Livingston, and several other citizens, he petitioned for a charter for a ferry company.

He did not live to enjoy a long life with his family and the friends he had served so well. He died September 3, 1792, aged 44 years and 2 months and was buried in the Reformed Church Cemetery, where his monument still stands sadly neglected. He was survived by his wife, who died May 26, 1829, aged 80 years, 4 months, 18 days. Their children were: Catharine, b. 1772 Cornelia, b. 1774 Peter Montgomery, b. 1775, died young Sarah Crannell, b. 1777 Anna Maria, b. 1779, died 1856, unmarried Elizabeth, b. 1782, died 1783

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Geertruid, b. 1786, d. 1846, unmarried Helena, b. 1787 Peter Vas Crannell, b. 1790 Caroline, b. 1792, d. 1822, unmarried.

Although Bartholomew Crannell had been exiled early in 1776 and his property confiscated, his real estate was not sold until 1788 when it was bought in by Dr. Tappen and Gilbert Livingston, out of consideration of the inheritance rights of their wives, who were Crannell's daughters. Mr. Crannell and his family together with the Rev. Dr. Beardsley, rector of Christ Episcopal Church, and his wife, another daughter of Mr. Crannell, and two sons who served in the English army, remained in New York until late in the fall of 1783, when they went with other loyalists to New Brunswick, at that time a part of the Province of Nova Scotia. There Mr. Crannell became interested in the founding of the City of St. John and in later life was known as "the father of St. John."

In spite of the different courses of the two daughters, Mrs. Tappen and Mrs. Livingston, and their husbands, even with exile from their home and loss of property, there was no bitter feeling on the part of the Crannell family, for in the fall of 1783, just before they were to sail, Mrs. Tappen visited them in New York and, in a newsy, chatty letter to Dr. Tappen, wrote. "They are desirous to see you, Gilbert, Caty. They expect to go by the first of next month. Daddy wishes to have all the money due him from you for Bill and this wench. I shall be able to pay him about £35. Daddy wants one barrel of vinnager," &c.

Just where the Tappens lived during the years of his business life at the Union Store is not quite certain, whether in the brick house on Main Street, between Academy and Hamilton Streets, or in the white house near the river, both of which were advertised by Mrs: Tappen after the death of Dr. Tappen. The following advertisement appeared in The Poughkeepsie Journal, January 25, 1797: TO BE LET And possession given on the 1st of April THE WHITE HOUSE & LOT near the Union Store or Middle Landing, half a mile from Poughkeepsie court house, late of Peter Tappen, deceased, the house is two stories, large and commodious, and

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commands the best view of the Hudson of any on its banks.

Also the House and Lot, (being the homestead of the late Peter Tappen) in the centre of the town, with 4 acres of land in the highest cultivation.

Also about 50 acres of excellent land, to be let on shares or otherwise, in the vicinity of the town, with a large proportion of meadow. The above lands and premises are so well known that a particular description is needless. ELIZABETH TAPPEN.

The Political Barometer of February 15, 1803, contained the following advertisement:

TO BE LET

For one or two years from the 1st of May next, The White House near the river and Middle Landing, half a mile from Poughkeepsie Court House. It is 52 feet in front, two stories high, has two rooms, a hall, a bedroom and pantry on the lower floor, a large kitchen adjoining back, and a close piazza of 14 by 34; five rooms and a hall on the second floor, a garret over, and cellar under the whole; with between three and four acres of land, on which is a garden, a potatoe yard and young bearing apple orchard, and a variety of other fruit; a barn, a carriage house, a never failing well, &c. This situation is both healthy and pleasant, having in view part of the town, the post road, three stores and their landings, the roads leading to them, and a prospect ten miles down the river.

Also, about ten acres of land in the town,

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next east of Esq. Emott's.—For terms apply to

February 15. ELIZABETH TAPPEN.

In 1808 Mrs. Tappen was living in the brick house as the following advertisement in The Poughkeepsie Journal, March 9, 1808, would indicate :

THREE HOUSES TO LET

A brick house on the upper end of Main street, containing a hall, three rooms and three pantries in the first story, and four rooms and two pantries on the second; a celler kitchen, bed room, pantry and cellers under, and garret over the whole; with a yard, garden with fruit, a good well of water, a cistern, stable, &c—Another house brick front, has a large hall, five rooms, a pantry & kitchen on the first floor, the second story contains 3 rooms, a garret over and cellar under the whole, a large yard & garden with a variety of fruit, two pasture lots, with an apple orchard, a good well of water, a cistern, barn, carriage house, smoke house, &c. Another house in Union street. Enquire of

ELIZABETH TAPPEN, in the brick house. Poughkeepsie, March 8th, 1808.

The brick house on Alain Street was the property given to Dr. Tappen and his wife at the time of their marriage and was located on property which is now the north-east corner of Main and Crannell Streets. The records show that when Crannell Street was laid out in 1824, it was "by and with the consent and approbation of Elizabeth Tappen, the proprietor of the land". The survey began at the corner of her house.

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Mrs. Tappen survived many years after the death of her husband. Of a family of ten children, one son, Peter Vas Crannell, (named for his maternal grandfather, Bartholomew Crannell, and a great-grandfather Domine Vas), and several daughters survived their father. The son, known in Poughkeepsie as Dr. Peter Tappen, 2nd, kept a school in the brick house on the corner of Main and Crannell Streets, in 1831 which was "attended by most of the children of the south side".7 One of his daughters married James Bowne and their descendants lived at Poughkeepsie many years.

J. WILSON POUCHER.

REFERENCES 1..—Names of persons for whom marriage licenses were issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, previous to 1784. Printed by Gideon J. Tucker, Secretary of State, 1860. p. 383. 2.—American archives, Fourth series, by Peter Force. VI, p. 1427. 3.—Calendar of Historical manuscripts relating to the war of the Revolution, in the office of the Secretary of State, Albany, New York. Vol. II, p. 32. 4.—The History of Kingston, New York, from its early settlement to the year 1820, by Marius Schoonmaker. p. 489. 5.—Same as Note 1. 6.—Same as Note 1. 7.—The Eagle's history of Poughkeepsie, from the earliest settlements 1683 to 1905, by Edmund Platt, p. 109, (Petition of Leonard Maison, an able lawyer and politician of his time, for cross walks across Main Street at Crannell and Hamilton Streets).

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FROM STEPHEN HENDRICKSON'S INN OF 1777 TO THE NELSON HOUSE OF 1934 by HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS

The land on the west side of Market street, Poughkeepsie, on which the Nelson House is built, has been the site of a hotel since 1777 (a period of 157 years) and in the following pages an attempt is made to present the main facts in the story of the land, to describe the hotelbuildings and to mention some of the people who have been connected with the property.

Before 1777 there were in America very few public houses which were hotels in the same way that a public house is now considered to be a hotel. In 1934 a hotel is a house which is conducted solely for the entertainment of those who may come seeking board and lodging and which derives its support from the monies received for supplying such entertainment. In the eighteenth century, before the Revolution, in a country neighborhood such as Dutchess County, there was probably not a public house that could be called a hotel in the modern meaning of the word. There was very little travel through the county. Few transients jolted over the rough roads. But, here and there, a resident made it known that, in addition to his main business of farming, he would, for pay, give shelter and food to occasional visitors. Such a farm-home came to be called a tavern. In some cases the business of entertainment grew by degrees to be of an importance equal to that of the business of the farm but probably no tavern-keeper in Dutchess before the Revolution could have earned his living had he depended entirely upon furnishing hospitality to transients.

In the light of those conditions the story of the site of the Nelson House exhibits normal features throughout for there is reason to believe that before the Revolution a farmhouse stood on this ground, in which board and lodging were sometimes supplied for pay, while from 1777 to 1934 a hotel in the current understanding of the term has been continuously conducted on the same spot.

The land on which much of the city of Poughkeepsie is built was sold by the Indians in 1686 to two white men, to whom was granted the Sanders and Harmense Patent. One of the two purchasers, Myndert

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Harmense Van Den Bogaerdt, made a present in 1709 to his son, Jacobus, of a strip running from the river eastward (south of what is now Main street), out of which gift Jacobus set aside as a homestead farm for himself the land now bordering the west side of Market street between Main and Pine.

On his homestead acres Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt built a house and from his will' it is learned that the house stood a little way south of the Court House with an orchard adjoining it. A map of Poughkeepsie, made in 1770, shows only one dwelling immediately south of the Court House on the west side of the Post Road and it is impossible to determine from the map whether that one house of 1770 stood on the site of the Nelson House or on that of the present post office. It is known however that a few years later there was a house on each of those sites, that the house preceding the Nelson House was built in a style of architecture characteristic of the first half of the eighteenth century and that the house preceding the post office illustrated a fashion of the third quarter of the century, which achitectural differences afford presumptive evidence that the house of 1770 stood where the Nelson House now is.

Turning to the records of the Board of Supervisors of Dutchess County it appears that from 1725 to 1742 Jacobus -Van Den Bogaerdt was on six occasions paid for furnishing board for supervisors, assessors and members of the grand jury, which can only mean that he was one of the local farmers who received transients in his home.

When Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt took possession of the land his father gave him it was a forested area and, to create a farm, it was necessary to cut down trees and clear away stumps and stones before fields could be laid out and plowing, planting and reaping follow their usual round. Jacobus spent his life in such tasks. He was a pioneer in a wilderness and there fell to his lot the labors, hardships and privations that first settlers in an undeveloped country always experience.

Across his land, when he took it over, there ran through the woods north and south a footpath, worn by generations of Indian runners as a trail, and little by little the wheels of white men's carts turned the trail into a rough road. The road became known as the King's Highway; later it was called the Post Road and, later still, Market street.2

The north boundary line of the land of Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt joined the south line of the land of Baltus Van Kleeck along the course of what is now Main street, Poughkeepsie, between Washington and

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Academy, and a passage-way was trodden by the first settlers between the Van Den Bogaerdt and Van Kleeck properties which was called East Lane. As the lane was widened by increasing travel, it became "the Filkintown3 Road" and "the Road to Nine Partners,"4 then the Dutchess Turnpike and finally Main street.

Thus simple local circumstances brought about at Poughkeepsie the junction of two thoroughfares in the form of a letter T. Shortly after the junction had been established Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt gave to the community two pieces of ground for specific public purposes. To the Reformed Dutch Church of Poughkeepsie he presented a lot which now constitutes the southeast corner of Main and Market streets and to Dutchess County the lot which is at the southwest angle of the streets and it was due to the erection of a church and of a court house at those corners that the T-shaped road-junction became a spot at which centered the public interests of Poughkeepsie and of Dutchess.

Locally, Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt will long be remembered because of the two gifts he made. In other respects his life was obscure and uneventful and he bore but a small part in public affairs. For nearly half a century he toiled on his farm, whence he looked out over a primitive road to the primitive church and county-building near by and, as he sold but little of the large tract his father gave him, he had few neighbors.

Under his will (made in 1747 and proved in 1756) Jacobus gave the use of his entire estate, real and personal, to his wife, during widowhood, after which most of his land was to pass to his two sons (a small portion, only, going to his two daughters). The sons seem to have acquired their inheritance in the 1760's for in those years they began to break up their father's real estate into major divisions. The northern portion of the homestead, lying on the west side of the King's Highway from Main to (the present) Church street, they conveyed in 1766 to Myndert Van Kleeck and the latter gradually sold a few house-lots out of the old farm. One such lot was purchased by Stephen Hendrickson and was occupied by him as an inn-site.

Stephen Hendrickson came to Poughkeepsie (probably from Long Island) just before the Revolution, when he was but little over twentyone years old. His name does not appear upon the lists of tax-payers until 1777 but incidental references to him in contemporary records show that he was living at Poughkeepsie in 1775 and 1776. He was

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active in the War of the Revolution, holding in 1778 a commission as lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment of Dutchess County Militia and in 1780 as captain. There is evidence to prove that from 1777 to 1814 he conducted an inn in a house that stood on the site of the main office of the present Nelson House.

There were stirring times at Poughkeepsie from 1778 to 1783 for, in those years, the little place was the capital of the state of New York. The Governor, George Clinton, established his family in a house and made his home there; the executive officers of the state were present much of the time to carry on the work of their departments; the legislature sat there for a number of sessions; military officers came and went; while the board of supervisors of Dutchess County and the members of the county courts met regularly. As a result the taverns and all private dwellings were taxed to capacity to provide accommodations for the strangers who thronged the village and, immediately, Stephen Hendrickson's Inn became well known to individual transients and as a place where official business was transacted. For example: from 1777 to 1794 inclusive the supervisors and assessors were entertained at the inn thirteen times; on September 22, 1778, Comfort Sands, AuditorGeneral of the newly organized state of New York, audited accounts there ;5 on July 31, 1779, at the house of Stephen Hendrickson, Gilbert Livingston was elected chairman of the Poughkeepsie Precinct Committee ;6 on March 22, 1778, Governor Clinton paid Stephen Hendrickson £5.5.0 for the rental of a room which had been used by the state Council of Revision ;7 while an intimation that the senate of the state may have held a session in the inn is found in the record8 that in March, 17n, when the senate sat at Poughkeepsie, Stephen Hendrickson served as sergeant-at-arms.

There is a creditable tradition9 that Stephen Hendrickson's house was a story and a half in height, with a steep roof; that the roof sloped down until it rested on posts; and the posts, in turn, rested on a long platform (or veranda) near the level of the ground; which description accords accurately with the type of house that was customarily built in this vicinity in the first half of the eighteenth century (which is to say: in the lifetime of Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt). As to whether the house was a stone or framed structure the tradition is silent.

Having in mind the general appearance of the house of Stephen Hendrickson, with its low walls, steep roof and long veranda, it is

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interesting to add the further detail that, suspended in front of the veranda, there was a signboard, on which was painted a likeness of General Richard Montgomery. In 1775 Richard Montgomery of Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, led an expedition of American troops to Canada. He fell on the field of battle before Quebec in December, 1775, a gallant figure, and at once became a hero with the populace. The hero-worship accorded him at Poughkeepsie is reflected in the fact that when Stephen Hendrickson opened his inn in 1777 it was a portrait of Montgomery that he chose for the swinging sign before the door and, today, imagination can picture the arrival and departure beneath that signboard of large numbers of men who were prominent in civil and military affairs during the War of the Revolution.

How long it was before the signboard disappeared from before the inn is not known but that it was still doing duty in 1824 is revealed by the following anecdote.

On September 16, 1824, General LaFayette visited Poughkeepsie and the program for his entertainment included a reception at the hotel that had formerly belonged to Stephen Hendrickson but which was known in 1824 as the Forbus House. Present at the reception was George P. Oakley of Poughkeepsie and on September 22, 1824, in the columns of the Dutchess Observer 'Mr. Oakley gave a vivid description of the occasion. He said in part: "The scene at Forbus's was highly interesting and, if a view of it was permitted to the IMMORTAL MONTGOMERY, he beheld it with heavenly complacency. This illustrious martyr to his devotion in the American cause was brought to my recollection at the moment by the old sign, which hung above and which has been fanned by the breezes and bleached by the snows of forty-seven summers and winters:"

Stephen Hendrickson's only son, Isaac, died on Long Island on July 26, 1799, in his twenty-second year, and in November following the bereaved father advertised" that the house and lot where he lived ("so well known as a place for public business") were for sale, the sole reason being that the owner wished to retire. But real estate moved slowly then—as often—and not until May 1, 1807, did Stephen Hendrickson sell" his inn to John Forbus. In the light of present values it is to be noted that John Forbus paid $4,000.00 for one-half an acre

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and twenty-four perches of land, with a house, where the Nelson House now stands. Stephen Hendrickson died March 5, 1814, in his sixtyfourth year and an obituary in the Poughkeepsie Journal of March 9th efers to him as an old resident, a trustee of the Dutchess County Academy and as a member of Solomon's Lodge.

John Forbus's parentage and birthplace have not been learned, although there is some reason to think that he was descended from a Scotch family that was settled early on Long Island and whose name (Forbes) was corrupted by Dutch neighbors from one syllable into two. He bought Stephen Hendrickson's inn in 1807 and in 1813 advertised in the Republican Herald (issue for December 22) that the house had been thoroughly repaired and greatly enlarged and that it was completely fitted up. Attached to it, he said, were stables and a large shed and there were horses, carriages and drivers for hire.

It is to be supposed that the enlargement referred to in 1813 consisted of the carrying up of the walls to a height of three stories, the addition of a new roof and the building of two extra verandas across the front (at the level of the second and third stories). The accounts in the local papers of the visit of LaFayette in 1824 mention the upper and lower verandas at the Forbus House and photographs made in the 1860's record them. Also, it was probably in 1813 that a west wing was added, making the hotel an ell in shape. The map of Poughkeepsie drawn in 1834 by Henry Whinfield shows a wing extending to the rear along the north boundary line of the hotel-lot and so, even if not built in 1813, the wing ante-dated 1834.

John Forbus died October 24, 1827, aged seventy years, having been both owner ,and manager of the Forbus House. His sons and daughters inherited the hotel from him and, beginning with them, the ownership and management were separated from 1827 to 1861. From 1861 to 1868 ownership and management were joined again, only to be separated from 1869 to 1913. For the convenience of the reader there is given below a record of the chain of title to the land and to the house and the names (so far as known) of those who either leased the house to conduct it as a business for themselves, or who were engaged by the cwner to fill the position of landlord or manager.

Owners—Sanders and Harmense Patent, 1686-1709; Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt, 1709-1756; Myndert Van Den Bogaerdt and Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt, Jr., 1756-1766; Myndert Van Kleeck, 1766-

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(1777?) ; Stephen Hendrickson, (1777 ?)-1807 ; John Forbus, 18071827; The Heirs of John Forbus, 1827-1836; Philip Schuyler Crooke, 1836-1840; Charles Crooke, 1840-1859; Homer A. Nelson, 1859-1861; Mrs. E. P. Taylor (Catharine Nelson), 1861-1869; Milo Bird, 1869 1874; Mrs. E. P. Taylor (Catharine Nelson), 1874-1901; Mrs. F. G. Jewett (Ella K. Taylor), 1901-1913; Horatio N. Bain, 1913-1918; Mrs. Horatio N. Bain (Carrie Belding), 1918; Walter Averill, 1918; The Nelson House Company, Inc., 1918-1934.

Landlords—Stephen Hendrickson, 1777-1807; John Forbus, 18071827; Thomas Swift, 1829-1832; Henry Jarvis, 1832-183 ( ?) ; A. S. Hatch,12 183( ?)-1840; Jared Stone, Frederick W. Stone, 184( ?)184 ( ?) ; Alanson Simpson, 184( ?)-1848; James R. Cary, 1850-1854; 0. W. Doty, 1855-1857; Mrs. E. P. Taylor, 1859-1868; Milo Bird, 1869-1870; Sherman, 1871-1872; Patrick O'Grady, 1872-1874; A. P. Black, 1876-1880; W. A. Rosekrans, 1881; Van Norman & Land, 1882; M. L. Fay, 1883; Horatio N. Bain, 1884-1918; Walter Averill, 1918-1921; Emmet P. Coughlan, 1921-1934.

After the death in October, 1827, of John Forbus, his heirs put the old inn in good order and in May 1829, the Poughkeepsie Journal contained the following announcement: "FORBUS' HOUSE Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County Th. Swift Has become the proprietor of the celebrated TAVERN, which for many years past has been kept by Mr. John Forbus. The high reputation which the house has enjoyed under its former proprietor shall be sustained in every respect. It has undergone a thorough repair and been furnished throughout in the most approved modern style.

The central and convenient situation of this establishment, removed from the dust and bustle of Main street, and its vicinity to the public buildings and business part of the village, renders it peculiarly satisfactory and pleasant to the guest :—in addition to which the extensive and romantic grounds in the rear, commanding a beautiful view of the Hudson, its picturesque scenery, the Catskill mountains and Highlands, afford a delightful resort in the summer months to those who may be desirous of spending a part of the warm

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season in the country for the enjoyment of health, pleasure and comfort.

May 1, 1829."

Readers of 1934, living in the day of concrete pavements and motortraffic and inconvenienced by "dust and bustle" on Main street, will wonder what the relative degree of dust and bustle was in 1829, when cobblestones covered Main street and all vehicles were horse-drawn. It is well known that the number of the farm and village vehicles that frequented Poughkeepsie in 1829 was large and, in that connection, it may not be out of order here to call attention to the iron rings, held in the curb by iron staples, which in 1934 may still be seen on the north side of Main street immediately east of New Market street, at the place where teams used to be parked and tied.

The advertisement of the Forbus House that has just been quoted emphasizes the grounds in the rear of the hotel and reveals that in 1829 Poughkeepsie was regarded as something of a summer resort. The hotel stood at the east end of an oblong lot and the map of Poughkeepsie for 1834 indicates a shed and a stable in the rear of the hotel, with either a drive or a path between them. Back of this long and narrow hotel-lot and abutting its west end so as to form a T was a tract of ten acres which John Forbus bought of Stephen Hendrickson in 1810.13 The ten acres lay upon a hillside that sloped toward the west and tradition" says that, when John Forbus acquired it, it was covered by an apple-orchard and that he cut down the trees. That orchard was in all probability the same as the one mentioned in the will of Jacobus Van Den Bogaerdt in 1747, which had lasted throughout the time of Stephen Hendrickson's ownership of the inn.

From 1810 until the third quarter of the nineteenth century the tract of ten acres back of the hotel was called Forbus Hill and it was used or a variety of purposes. At first there were exhibitions of imported animals, when a single lion or elephant would be shown, which simple entertainment was followed by the circus, with all its varied excitements. In early years the Dutchess County Agricultural Society held competitive prize programs on the hill and, as the nineteenth century wore on, there were political rallies, military reviews, and so on.

South of Forbus Hill the ground extending to (the present) Church street was for many years covered by the gardens of James Emott15 and

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James Hooker," residents of Market street. The land was terraced and laid out in paths and flower-beds, with shrubbery, and as a whole the two gardens added much to the pleasant appearance of the neighborhood of the hotel.

Ultimately the city was built up west of Market street and in the course of that growth Forbus Hill was graded and leveled to an extent that changed the contour of the ground and the hill is now only a name and a memory, while the Emott and Hooker gardens are also long gone and the present generation knows not of them. With the erection of many houses and the cutting down of trees, the extensive view in the immediate foreground west of the hotel was blocked out and the river and hills can now be seen only from upper windows.

At the time that the view of the river from the Forbus House was unobstructed a lookout (it is said) was kept posted on the hill to watch for the approach of passenger boats, in order to give the hotel omnibus ample time to carry travellers to the landing.

Stages were driven between New York and Albany in the eighteenth century and they continued to run until the Hudson River Railroad was opened in the 1850's and, as Poughkeepsie was the half-way point on the route, their arrival and departure long constituted a conspicuous feature of the life of Market street. An anonymous writer published in the Daily Eagle of January 27, 1868, reminiscences of thc. "mail-wagon" before 1850 and described it as drawn by four horses, piled with mail bags and with armed guards seated on the top.

The general structure of the Forbus House probably remained the same from 1813 to 1844. Then, on May 10, 1844, an advertisement17 was placed in the Poughkeepsie Journal and Eagle which announced that "Simpson's Hotel"," "formerly the Forbus House", had "just been enlarged." The enlargement consisted of a brick addition, four stories high, built against the south wall of the original house, and it is still standing in 1934. An observant passerby can easily see the seam in the brickwork of the front wall of the Nelson House which indicates where the addition of 1844 joined the house of 1777.

No picture has been found of the interior of the Forbus House but the writer is most fortunate in having obtained a description of it from Mrs. James W. Hinkley of Poughkeepsie, who lived in the house for some time just before 1875. Mrs. Hinkley's good memory and clear

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statement of fact make it possible to record the following details of the floor-plan of the hotel as she knew it.

Crossing the veranda, which was but a step above ground-level, and entering a wide central hall there were two main rooms at either hand. To the right (north) the front room served as an office (with clerk's desk, register, &c.) and as a reading and smoking room for men, while the rear room was the bar. To the left (south) of the front door was a waiting room for women, where the passengers on the numerous country stages arrived and departed. Beyond the waiting room, in the brick addition of 1844, was a livery office. From the central hall a straight flight of stairs led to the second story. The ceilings of the first story were low,—probably dating from 1777. On the second floor the walls were higher,—indicating the alterations that were made to the house in 1813. The central hall on the second floor was wide. South of it, at the front of the house, was a parlor, in which were mahogany furniture and growing plants. North of the hall at the front was the state bedroom of the hotel.

The west wing of the Forbus House which, as before noted, was built before 1834, joined the back of the original house in line with the central halls and with the rooms north of the hall. From the second story hall there was a step down to a lower level, from which lower level entrance was had to the dining room in the wing. Kitchens, pantries, etc., were below the dining room. Over all portions of the hotel was a third story with bedrooms and, in the 1870's, the top floor of Lawyers' Row (the next building north of the Forbus House) was utilized for extra bedrooms. To reach the same a hall was made in the Forbus House back of the State bedroom, at right angles to the central hall, and a door cut in the walls of the adjoining buildings. A similar hall ran behind the second floor parlor to approach the bedrooms in the brick addition of 1844.

In 187519 the house of 1777 and the wing of 1813-1834 were torn down and on May 16, 1876,20 there took place the formal opening for business of the building that now forms the center of the front portion of the Nelson House, with the large unit at the rear that accommodates dining room and kitchen and bedrooms. The west wing of 1876 has, since then, then altered and enlarged several times.

An account of the Annex to the Nelson House, which stood where New Market street now joins Main street is not included here for the

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reason that the Annex had an independent story of its own as the Poughkeepsie Hotel from 1797 to 1884. It was consolidated with the Nelson House in 1884 and so continued Until torn down to make way for New Market street.

With the razing of the Forbus House in 1875 and the opening of a new building on the same site in 1876, the name: Forbus was discarded and that of: Nelson substituted. The change was made in honor of Judge Nelson of Poughkeepsie, who owned the property from 1859 to 1861 and whose sister, Mrs. E. P. Taylor, was the owner in 1876. Homer A. Nelson (born 1829, died 1891), a native of Dutchess County, was an able lawyer who served as Judge of the County Court from 1855 to 1863 and who also held office as Secretary of State of New York 18671871 and as State Senator 1882-1883.

When Stephen Hendrickson opened his inn in 1777 the house stood on a lot that had a frontage on the street of approximately ninety-four feet and a depth, east and west, of approximately three-hundred and fifty-nine feet. To this ground-area of the hotel-property several additions have since been made, the first being that of the lot of ten acres at the west which has already been described. From time to time changes occurred in the rear of the hotel in connection with successive stables and sheds and garages and with the need for yard-entrances and exits but, passing those over, it should be stated in detail that the original frontage on the street has been extended to the north and to the south. In Stephen Hendrickson's day there was a house-lot on either side of his inn. All of the original lot to the north2i (lying in the angle of Market and Union streets) is now owned by the United States as a site for a past office, with the exception of a strip ten feet wide off the south end, which strip became a part of the hotel property in 1884. In that year Homer A. Nelson bought22 the small piece of land for his sister, Mrs. E. P. Taylor, who then owned the Nelson House, and between 1884 and 188723 there was built on the land an addition to the hotel. The addition is obvious to the eye as an architectural afterthought. Early in the nineteenth century the house-lot24 south of Stephen Hendrickson's was divided into two parts, on each of which a dwelling was built. In later years the two houses were used for business purposes and both parts of the original lot were ultimately absorbed into the hotelsite. The northern part was purchased in 1907 by Mrs. F. G. Jewett (who then owned the Nelson House) and the southern in 1925 by the

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Nelson House Company, Incorporated, and on the original lot there was erected in 1925 the present south end of the Nelson House (opened for use on February 1, 1926). •

Horatio N. Bain, whose connection with the Nelson House began in 1884, died in 1918 and his widow, Mrs. Carrie Belding Bain, who had been associated with the hotel as actively and effectively as he throughout their management and ownership, organized on May 2, 1918, the Nelson House Company Incorporated. Also in 1918 Walter Averill became the manager of the house. Mr. Averill died in 1921 and as succeeded that same year by Emmet P. Coughlan, the present head of the establishment.

It is impossible to record here all the many individuals who have contributed to the success and long life of Stephen Hendrickson's Inn, the Forbus House and the Nelson House but it is well to remember that, throughout the years under review, the owners and managers have identified themselves with the local community and the hotel on Market street has been a dependable, productive factor in the life of Poughkeepsie.

The quality of stability which has marked the history of the house through all its years has been especially evident since 1884 when Mr. and Mrs. Bain took over the business. During their regime good relations between the management and the staff have been reflected in the long terms of service of those in their employ. The housekeeper of 1934, Ellen Lowery, came to the house in 1883 and among the colored waiters in the dining room there have been a number who have filled their places twenty, thirty and even forty years. Who of the writer's generation but can recall the head waiter of the 1890's, James Henry Deyo ? or William Marlow, John Rose, John Harden, Edward Gray, John Simmons, Robert Washington and others whose faithful service well deserves to be recorded?

The element of steadiness in the conduct of the hotel also explains in part the fact that for many years the house has entertained long-term guests as well as transients. The writer's grandparents, with their family of young children, spent a year at the Forbus House about 1851 and, as time went on, numbers of elderly persons and detached individuals have occupied by the year suites of rooms in which they installed their own furniture and created an atmosphere of home. All of which speaks of itself for the character of the house.

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It goes without saying that many distinguished strangers have been entertained. There is no tradition that Washington ever stopped at Stephen Hendrickson's Inn but, while Poughkeepsie was the capital of the state of New York (1778-1783), most of the prominent men of the state must have crossed the threshold of the original house. The reception given for LaFayette at the Forbus House in 1824 was a gala occasion, never to be forgotten, and through all the years outstanding persons have from time to time received hospitality. There have been guests prominent in political and military affairs; in the ministry and the law; educators; lecturers; writers; and a long succession of actors, whose engagements brought them to the Collingwood Theater, directly across the street. Could a list of names be compiled from old registers it would mirror many aspects of life in the past century.

The story of this hotel-stand must however be limited to a synopsis of its chief features. The significance of the story lies in the fact of the long continuance of one business on one site in an age when changes constantly occur and when such continuity is rare enough to be worthy of note.

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS.

REFERENCES

1.—Collections of the New York Historical Society, 1896, p. 371. 2.—Other names were applied to the street before Market was adopted permanently. For Main, see: Country Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser, July 1, 1788, p. 3, c. 4; for Court, see: Poughkeepsie Journal, Feb. 25, 1800, p. 4, c. 4; for State, see: Poughkeepsie Journal, Nov. 18, 1800, p. 3, c. 4-. 3.—Early deeds show that Filkintown was a locality between Millbrook and Mabbettsville where at present may be seen an ancient milldam, a pond and a stream, immediately west of the house of the late Silas Wodell. 4.—Nine Partners was a locality on the road from South Millbrook to Dover where the Nine Partners Friends' Meeting House is still standing. 5.—New York Journal, August 10, 1778. 6.—Ibid., August 9, 1779. 7.—Account Book of George Clinton, New York Historical Society. 8.—Civil List of the State of New York, p. 277. 9.—Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, April 14, 1875, article titled: Goodby to an Old Landmark. 10.—Poughkeepsie Journal, Nov. 5, 1799, p. 3. 11.—Dutchess County deeds, liber 19, p. 705. 12.—In the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle of April 14, 1875, there is an account by an eye-witness of the death of A. S. Hatch, the landlord of the Forbus House. Mr. Hatch was seated on the veranda of the hotel about noon, during a thunder shower, resting against the knob of the doorbell. Lightning struck the house, the electricity followed the bellwire and Mr. Hatch was instantly killed. According to The Records of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, vol. 2, p. 251, A. S. Hatch died August 12, 1840. 5.7

13.—Dutchess County deeds, liber 21, P. 533. 14.—Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, April 14, 1875, article titled: Goodby to an Old Landmark. 15.—James Emott, Sr., a distinguished lawyer, owned and occupied from 1806 to 1850 a stone dwelling on the west side of Market street, which is still standing in 1934. The house was probably built in the 1780's and was two stories in height, with a roof of single slant, a hall through the center of each story and four rooms on a floor. In the 1870's it was given a mansard roof and the interior was altered into stores and offices; the stone walls have in large part been faced with brick and the building is now known as numbers 44-48 Market street. 16.—On the site of the present building of the Y. M. C. A., Poughkeepsie, there stood previously a large frame dwelling, built about 1800, which from 1828 to 1858 was the home of James Hooker, a leading member of the local bar. For further details see: Dutchess County Doorways, p. 121. 17.—Poughkeepsie Journal and Eagle, Feb. 1, 1845. 18.—The hotel was owned in 1844 by Charles Crooke and, for the short time that Alanson Simpson acted as landlord under Mr. Crooke, it was called "Simpson's." The name: Forbus was resumed when Mr. Simpson withdrew. 19.—Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, April 14, 1875, article titled: Goodby to an Old Landmark. 20.—Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, May 17, 1876. 21.—In the Poughkeepsie Evening Enterprise for April 16, 1884 (at p. 3, c. 2), there is an anonymous article embodying reminiscenses of the lot at the corner of Market and Union streets where, in April, 1884, Lawyers' Row was being torn down. The article states that the Row was built in two parts; that the northern (and older) end was erected by Valentine Baker and was occupied by him partly as a residence and partly as a store.

A map of Poughkeepsie, dated 1770, shows one house a little south of the court house, but it is not certain whether the house was on the site of the Nelson House or on that of the present post office. The probability is that the dwelling of 1770 was on the site of the hotel and that in 1777 it became Stephen Hendrickson's Inn because, architecturally, the inn of 1777 was of an early type.

The house that actually did stand on the site of the post office was built in a style that was popular in Dutchess at a date later than the style in which the inn was built. Several photographs on file in the Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie, reveal that the house on the post office site was originally a stone structure, two stories high, with a gambrel roof and having two chimneys (one in each gable). The height of the house and its gambrel roof are the architectural features which make it reasonably safe to accept the tradition (cited in 1884) that Valentine Baker built it and place the date of its erection as probably about 1779, in which year its owner first paid taxes.

The photographs just referred to show that the enlargement of the house of Valentine Baker doubled its front on Market street by an addition at the south end of the same height as the original; that the addition was clapboarded and had a gambrel roof and four chimneys and also that, subsequently, the north wall of the original house was faced with brick, the east wall covered with stucco and, over both the first and second parts of the whole, the gambrel roof was replaced with a mansard.

Valentine Baker came to Poughkeepsie as a young man, established himself on the corner lot north of Stephen Hendrickson's Inn and occupied his stone house there until his death in 1815 at the age of sixty-three. Title to the property remained in his family until the 1840's and his house was for many years the home of his daughter and her husband, John Brush, an attorney-atlaw.

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The date of the enlargement of the original house can be approximated as in the course of the 1830's and the long low building which for about fifty years covered the lot was known as Lawyers' Row, inasmuch as it was a honeycomb of lawyers' offices. Many well known men frequented the Row and colorful stories—involving events, personal temperaments, humor, the law and so on—gathered about the worn and rather shabby place. 22.—Dutchess County deeds, Iiber 217, p. 139. 23.—Directory of the City of Poughkeepsie for 1887; cut of the Nelson House on the back cover, showing addition with bay-windows.. 24.—South of Stephen Hendrickson's Inn there was a house-lot which was owned in 1783 by Cornelius Ter Bush. The deeds for the lot are incomplete for about twenty years, during which period incidental references show that Cornelius Ter Bush was succeeded as owner by his sister's husband, Henry DuBois. The latter seems to have held title approximately 178(6)-179(4). At an unknown date before 1803 William Allen bought the lot. He sold it in 1809 to Joseph Nelson and the latter sold in 1811 to Charles Butler.

Between 1811 and 1815 Charles Butler sold a strip off the south end of the lot and, throughout the nineteenth century, the original unit was held in two parts.

Henry DuBois (1755-1794), above mentioned, is known to have conducted a store on the lot in 1790. The building then standing was, presumably, the building described in an advertisement in the Poughkeepsie Journal in 1803 as follows:

Public Auction—For Sale—That 'valuable stand for business, now occup;ed by James Thorn as a store, next door south of Capt. Stephen Hendrickson's Inn in the village of Poughkeepsie. The lot has a handsome front; on which is a good house, two stories high, with wings—the one a kitchen, the other a dry goods store, with an excellent frame grocery store built in the rear on an even floor with the front one, well calculated for wholesale or retail business, with every convenience for receiving grain, Elc; a good garden, with fruit trees, shrubbery, eec. * * " For terms of sale enquire of William Allen of New York, James Cooper in Fishkill or Stephen Hendrickson in Poughkeepsie. * * * * February 4, 1803. William Allen.

The house and store of 1803 were torn down either by Charles Butler or by his son, Isaac, one or the other of whom built a large frame dwelling on the same spot. The Butler house was rectangular, two stories high, with hall through the center. It was built on a deep foundation and the broad veranda that ran across the front was reached by a high flight of steps. Under the veranda was an area.

On the south end of the original lot, purchased in 1815 by Henry Swift, there was erected a brick house, three stories high, which was the home of the Swift family for many years. Henry Swift and his son, Charles W. Swift, viho in turn lived in the brick house, were well known members of the bar of Dutchess County.

Of the men whose names are associated with the lot south of Stephen Hendrickson's Inn Henry DuBois was perhaps the most picturesque because of his service in the War of the Revolution. He held commissions as adjutant and captain in the Second Regiment of the New York Line and was a member of the New York State Branch of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Interest also attaches to Joseph Nelson, owner of the lot 1809-1811, who edited and published the Political Barometer in the house of 1803 (described above).

From 1811 to 1859 the northern portion of the lot was owned by Charles Butler first and after his death by his son, Isaac; from 1859 to 1881 by Isaiah McKibbin and his wife; and from 1881 to 1899 by Isaac N. Seaman and his 59

wife; and the Butlers, McKibbins and Seamans all in turn conducted a livery stable in the rear of the large frame dwelling. The Poughkeepsie Telegraph of September 7, 1836, contains Isaac Butler's advertisement of an omnibus which, also, he operated. The omnibus was available for hire for pleasure parties and it made regular trips between the village on the hill and the boatlandings at the river. It bore the name: Slange Kiip (Snake Hill), which was the Dutch designation for the promontory at the Upper Landing. The east end of the Poughkeepsie Bridge now rests on Slange

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